Post by michaelh on Jun 25, 2014 16:51:21 GMT -8
Chapter 16 Snow Travel
Only the self-arrest ice-axe grip should be taught for steep snow
travel and glissading in Freedom 9.
Seattle's Alpine Scrambling, Snowshoeing (at least in aspiration if not always
in effect), and Basic Climbing courses have taught near-exclusive reliance on the
self-arrest grip for at least the past 20 years, and probably much longer.
Thousands of beginning Mountaineers have been trained by those
courses to use the "self-arrest" grip. However, the text and illustrations in Freedoms 5
through 8, at least, continue to erroneously advocate the use of the so-called
self-belay grip for introductory use on steep snow. Students and instructors are
understandably confused by this lingering inconsistency between textbook and
the introductory curriculum as it has been refined over many years of practical
interaction between experienced instructors and novice mountaineers.
Snow travel with the palm on the adze -- the self-belay grip -- rather than with the
thumb curled under the adze -- the self-arrest grip -- may be more comfortable,
but can cause fatal delay or even direct injury in a slip on steep snow. The 1998
death of a Basic grad during a scramble on Kendall Peak was likely linked to the
grad's use of the self-belay grip, causing him to pick himself in the head when initially
attempting an arrest, in turn rendering him helpless to resist a steeper and steeper
fall into rocks below which resulted in fatal head injuries.
Steep snow travel using the "self-belay" grip has been shown in books on climbing
at least since Yvon Chouinard's "French Technique" of the 1960s. However
elegant, French technique has no place in saving beginners from injury or death
from a slip on steep snow. Travel with the self-belay grip on hard snow contradicts
a basic principle of safe snow travel: that it is speed and effectiveness, rather than
superficial elegance or transient comfort, that is crucial when self-arresting.
A falling climber using the "Self-belay" grip must lose vital time while spinning the head
of the axe through 180 degrees and reestablishing control before the pick can engage
the snow and initiate the arrest. Ken Small's earlier post on this Forum criticizing
Freedom 8's self-belay teaching pointed out how impractical this is.
Any edition of the AAC's Accidents in North American Mountaineering
can be expected to describe multiple tragedies involving self-arrest failure.
Freedom 9, which may be expected to continue to be the world's most popular
climbing manual, needs appropriate new text and illustrations to reflect the
Mountaineers' actual instructional "best practices." Seattle's Alpine
Scrambling Committee has tried but failed to get the inconsistent,
inappropriate, and downright dangerous text and illustrations changed
before publication of previous editions of Freedom. Thanks to this
Forum, the new edition's editors can be alerted to this problem and its
blatantly obvious solution.
The Seattle Alpine Scrambling Committee has specifically authorized a
subset of the committee membership (including myself and longtime committee
member and prior Chair (and Field Trips sub-chair) Steve Russell to lay out the
committee's comprehensive approach to ice ax/snow travel instructional "best
practices" in the hope that this approach can be thoroughly integrated into the
relevant sections of Freedom 9. The issue of the safe and appropriate
grips for instruction of novices has already arisen in Ken Small's series of valuable posts
on the subject; we begin by joining our voices with his on that
specific issue. As time goes on, we intend to go far beyond merely identifyiing
specific objectionable text and illustrations in Freedom 8, but that appears
to be an appropriate point of entry into that wider discussion..